PARIS, Feb 13 (Reuters) – French EDF plans new central storage site for nuclear wast state-controlled utility EDF plans to build a new central storage pool for nuclear waste but has not yet decided on a site, the company said.

French environment news site Reporterre on Tuesday wrote that EDF plans to build a central spent-fuel pool on the grounds of its Belleville-sur-Loire nuclear plant, which could receive up to 8,000 tonnes of spent fuel, the equivalent of up to about 90 reactor cores.

Spent fuel from nuclear reactors remains highly radioactive for thousands of years and all countries using nuclear energy struggle with the question of where to store it safely…….

France has a project to store long-life nuclear waste 500 metres below ground in impermeable clay in Bure, eastern France, but the plan has not yet received government approval and is strongly opposed by local groups and environmentalists.

Meanwhile, the La Hague reprocessing site acts as a de facto nuclear waste storage site as France has no permanent solution for deep geological storage. (Reporting by Geert De Clercq and Benjamin Mallet; editing by Richard Lough)

German Energiewende appears to be on track as the country continues to support clean power

Germany’s transition toward renewable energy, also called its Energiewende, has received some criticism over the past few years. The country is distancing itself from fossil-fuels and nuclear power, hoping to derive the majority of its electrical power from renewable sources in the coming years. A new report from Agora Energiewende, shows that the country’s transition may be right on track, despite concerns that the transition is too costly for the country.

Report predicts that Germany will receive 80% of its energy from renewable sources by 2050

According to the report, Germany is on track to meet its renewable energy goals by 2025. Beyond that, Germany is expected to receive as much as 60% of its power from renewable sourced by 2035, and 80% of its energy from renewables by 2050. The report also shows that clean energy accounts for the majority of Germany’s power, ahead of coal. The report also shows that Germany’s economy has grown by 40% since 1990, while demand for electrical power has been falling over the past several years.

Solar energy continues to receive support from German government

The German government has been showing strong support for various forms of clean power, but has been particularly interested in solar and wind power. Germany had once offered aggressive incentives meant to support the adoption of solar energy, but the country’s feed-in tariffs had proven so successful that they were considered financially unstable for the government. Though these incentives have been reduced, solar energy continues to thrive throughout Germany.

Wind energy is gaining traction in the country

Wind power has also become quite popular in Germany. Several German states have begun embracing wind energy, using large and small-scale wind farms to meet their electricity needs. Offshore wind projects have also found support from the German government. These projects have the potential to generate a large amount of electrical power and will not take up land within Germany. The government has also been promoting clean transportation, highlighting hydrogen fuel cells as the potential future of the auto industry.

EDF (EDF) fell as much as 5.5 percent, the biggest intraday decline since Nov. 29, and was down 4.8 percent at 17.265 euros as of 4:39 p.m. local time. The French government, which controls Paris-based EDF, is due to set wholesale prices for the company’s atomic power by the end of the year as the utility pushes for higher rates to help finance investments and cover costs. The tariff “could disappoint investors,” Arnaud Joan, an analyst at Bank of America in London, wrote in a report published today. Continue reading →

The Helios project, named after the ancient god of the sun, would install as many as 10 gigawatts of solar panels by 2050, enabling Greece to export power from the natural energy to other European Union countries.

to protect marine mammals and other marine life from……….highly toxic materials like depleted uranium that have been deposited by the military.

Saving the world’s rarest seal from uranium, guardian Uk, 17 June 2010, Dr Anastasia Miliou was interviewed by Georgina Kenyon“....Greek conservationists from the Greek NGO, Archipelagos, work to protect endangered common dolphins and monk seals and also the region’s marine ecosystems from the effects of overfishing, shipping, and the military. Dr Anastasia Miliou, manager and head scientist from Archipelagos Institute of Marine and Environmental Research of the Aegean Sea, based on the Greek island of Samos in the eastern Aegean, explains about seals, uranium deposits and sonar Continue reading →

Krümmel Accident Puts Question Mark over Germany’s Nuclear FutureBy SPIEGEL 13 July 09 The recent accident at the Krümmel nuclear power plant in northern Germany was more serious than was previously known. Anglea Merkel’s Christian Democrats are now finding themselves on the defensive with their plans to extend the life of German nuclear reactors………..

It was already awkward enough for Vattenfall that the accident, which resembled a similar breakdown two years ago, occurred after it had spent €300 million ($420 million) upgrading the plant. As in the 2007 incident, this time there was also a short circuit in a transformer. The reactor, which had just been started up, quickly had to be shut down again on Saturday, July 4.

Züfle was also forced to admit that the accident in the nuclear power plant was more serious than previously known. In addition to the transformer problem, he conceded, there was damage to “perhaps a few fuel elements,” namely the radioactive core of a nuclear power plant.

WWF Greece was part of a coalition that has been fighting a ‘no to coal’ campaign amid a will-they-won’t-they saga over government backing for coal plants and rumours that the ruling administration planned to introduce nuclear power to the country’s energy mix.

Demetres Karavellas, chief executive of the NGO, said: “We feel that our efforts to prove that Greece does not need coal power plants and nuclear energy have been justified. Today, we can be more optimistic that Greece might make the necessary shift towards a more sustainable and competitive green economy.”

The government change of stance on the issue was signalled by legislative changes to streamline and assist investment in renewable energy and by Mr Hatzidakis emerging from a cabinet meeting in late January to say “We want 2009 to be the year of renewable energy sources .”

1.This Month

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Changing climate change“2040” paints an optimistic picture of the future of the environment

The film focuses on technological and agricultural solutions that are already being implemented to help combat climate change, The Economist Feb 19th 2019

by C.G. | BERLIN ……….In “2040”, a documentary which premiered at the Berlinale, Mr Gameau seeks to wrest hope from the bleak reports of climate change. He was inspired by Project Drawdown, the first comprehensive plan to reverse global warming, and the film is intended as a “virtual letter to his four-year-old daughter to show her an alternative future”. “Many films,” Mr Gameau thinks, are too dystopian, and “paint a future that is really hard to engage and to connect with”. “2040” acknowledges that the Earth has set off down a hazardous path, but focuses on the work that is being done now to steer the right course. What, the film asks, could make 2040 a time worth living in?…. (subscribers only) https://www.economist.com/prospero/2019/02/19/2040-paints-an-optimistic-picture-of-the-future-of-the-environment